A Chinese woman who went missing after filing for refugee status in Japan in 1998 to avoid China's one-child policy has turned herself in to immigration authorities in Yokohama 32 months after her disappearance, her lawyer said Friday.
Li Xuemei, 28, who has since married a Japanese national, went to the Yokohama immigration office on Monday to obtain special permission to remain in Japan, the lawyer said.
She went missing in January 1999 while in the care of a volunteer organization in Tokyo.
Li entered Japan illegally in February 1998 aboard a fishing boat while pregnant with her second child, landing in Kashima, Shimane Prefecture.
In June that year, she filed for refugee status, claiming she would face a forced abortion if she were deported to China.
In July 1998, the Matsue District Court in Shimane Prefecture exonerated her, ruling that her condition required sympathy. Following the court's ruling, immigration authorities released Li as she was pregnant.
A month later, Li gave birth to a girl, who was placed in the care of a welfare facility in Tokyo after Li's disappearance.
Li's request for refugee status was rejected in September 1998, but she filed an objection to the decision and was allowed to remain in Japan.
Immigration authorities revoked the permission for her to remain in Japan after she went missing.
Public prosecutors, who had demanded a one-year jail term for Li illegally entering the country, appealed the district court's ruling. The Matsue branch of the Hiroshima High Court heard the case in February 1999 in Li's absence.
The high court is scheduled to hand down a ruling on Oct. 17 after the trial was suspended when she disappeared.
Li's lawyer said she married a Japanese man while she was on the run and wants to be reunited with her daughter.